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T O P I C R E V I E W

shadeone

Just throwing this out on this forum because I have seen a couple items on here before related to what I am looking for.

I am currently searching for parts from the following aircraft:

F-117a Nighthawk Stealth FighterB-2 Spirit Stealth BomberF-22 Raptor

I am mainly seeking exterior panel sections (Im NOT looking for anything classified that still has the Radar Absorbent Material still on it!) and items that have been flown on actual aircraft, not surplus unless it is instantly recognizable as being for the said craft.

Also seeking any memorabilia directly related to the aircraft above besides patches. Things like roll out ceremony pins, "first production metal shaving" paperweights, remove before flight tags... Whatever. Please PM me if you have anything I may be interested in or even if you have any leads I could check out!

Thanks in advance!Jamie

P.S. Not stealth related but I am also looking for A-10 Warthog and AH-64 Apache parts/stuff.

garymilgrom

Do you have an existing collection you could share with us? Sounds interesting.

shadeone

Ill grab some pictures soon! most of my stuff is in storage right now and kinda hard to get to...

I currently have a few mangled fragments from two different crashed F-117a and some cockpit switches, a couple program pins from the B-2 and some titanium parts (demilled of course!) and some tiny carbon fiber fragments from an F-22 crash as well as a first flight pin.

Disclaimer: All items obtained legally. nothing confidential, classified or secret. Any parts of actual aircraft have been demilitarized or parts that were left by the govt cleanup crews at the crash sites and are less than an inch in diameter.

X-Plane Fan

What's your email address? I may have something you're interested in.

shadeone

shadeone at yahoo dot com

garymilgrom

Shadeone - I work in an auto racing environment and have seen lots of titanium parts. But neither I nor our machine shop manager has heard of the word demilled. Could you please explain this? Thank you.

Robert Pearlman

Demilled is shorthand for demillitarized.

shadeone

Many stealth parts have very secret / classified coatings on them... Demilitarizing these parts means that they essentially strip it down to bare metal to remove these coatings. Further demilling involves putting this scrap through a shredder to make nice little one inch mangled pieces that are unrecognizable.

I talked to a technician who works on the B-2 stealth recently and now they don't even let scrap metal leave Whiteman Air Force Base (where the B-2 is stationed), they essentially disintegrate the junk on location from what he said.

cfreeze79

I, too, am a big "flight test" collector, and specialize in the kind of materials you seek, Jamie.

While I am not willing to part with any of my items, I can tell you that the stuff is really hard to come by (especially the scant B-2 and F-117 stuff I've got).

The most common B-2 item I have seen is the "Carried on First Flight" pin that regularly sells on eBay for $10-$20.

F-22 stuff: Very popular, and the first flight flown pin (pewter circle?) you mentioned is one of the best and most recognized (and did you know there is a key chain version of it, too?!).

I have seen F-22 "first shaving" paperweights, but never seen or heard of them for the F-117 or B-2... Given the nature of those programs (especially the F-117A), I also doubt that such paperweights exist for those programs - but ya never know!

There was a guy on eBay selling stuff from the Serbian F-117A shoot-down, but I haven't seen him active in awhile.

shadeone

I've got the B-2 "carried on first flight" pin, and if anyone else is looking for one, beware there is one seller on eBay with a flood of other B-2 pins, and his version that looks like the first flight one does not have the "carried on first flight" inscribed on the back so make sure you ask the seller for authentication.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for the F-22 keychain version! Thanks!

I got a piece from the Serbian shoot down about a month ago off eBay, probably the same guy you are mentioning.

And there are paperweights with shavings in them for the B-2. I have one from the first cut into the wing section complete with a letter from the desk of whoever was in charge of distributing them to factory employees and a photo slide showing the cut being made. Snagged it off eBay a year or so ago. Guy had it listed weird so it didn't get many views (lucky for me haha!)

Shoot me an email cfreeze79, even if your stuff isn't for sale, I would love to see some pics!

p51

I have two 'remove before flight' pins/tags that got removed from the final flight of a specific F-117 before it went to mothballing. They kept them at the field and two of them were given to me. You'd never tell anything from any other pin by looking at the streamer with it, though, except they aren't the usual red ones with white letters...

shadeone

For sale? Do you happen to know what specific craft?

z0sense

I have a couple of pins that came from NASA AMES that look like the F-117... They are about dime-nickle size, and look like actual scale models.

I know its not what you want to hear, but when I dig them out of storage I'll try to post them up... although it will be a couple more weeks.

In the mean time, I saw this site with a Google search that had a couple items for sale from a private collector. Good luck!

p51

quote:Originally posted by shadeone:For sale? Do you happen to know what specific craft?

Sure, I'd be willing to sell them (heck, I'd forgotten I even had the things until I just read this thread). I also have a "team B-2" pin in my gun show sales box, given to me at a DoD event I went to, can't recall exactly when it was.

As for the pins, no, I have no idea which specific bird it was. A guy I worked with used to be a USAF cops at Nellis and other bases, he grabbed them and gave them to be later as he owed me some money.

E-mail if interested, your profile lists no e-mail to contact you at.

NASA Glenn

The F-117 crew at the Cleveland Airshow gave away cast metal toy F-117 souvenirs 3 inches long and 2-1/2 inches wingspan. They were painted dark blue and "TR 37TFW: is printed in gold on the top of the fuselage. I am trying to figure out how to attach a photo.

shadeone

Upload it to imageshack.us and post the link here?

Gonzo

quote:Originally posted by NASA Glenn:...They were painted dark blue and "TR 37TFW: is printed in gold on the top of the fuselage...

The 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, Tonapah Test Range, NV. Good find at the air show!